Mass migration on Florida's Gulf Coast—but are they monarchs?
An observer reported thousands of monarchs per hour migrating along Florida's Gulf Coast this week. Before seeing the picture we had clues the butterflies would not be monarchs based on number and location. The number of butterflies was one hundred times higher than other monarch migration reports in the Southeast. The Florida report was even ten times higher than migration rates along the Atlantic Coast, where people counted hundreds of monarchs per hour, compared to thousands per hour in Florida. The sudden appearance of monarchs on the Gulf Coast of Florida seemed unlikely. The picture reveals the butterflies' identity: This butterfly is the Gulf Fritillary, a species that is known for its migration in the Gulf of Mexico (and why it is so-named).